"Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the way which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go." - Joshua 1:7

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize to my faithful readers for not posting part 2 of "Possess the Land" sooner. I've truly missed talking with you all but, in my absence, God has revealed much to me about faith and about walking with Him. Please pray for this blog- that God continues to use me for His Glory and that I may speak a word of encouragement to those who are in need; that Christ be exalted and that the devices of the Enemy be torn down with every blog post, in the Name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

So as we discussed in part 1, Joshua was given a great responsibility as a young adult. Moses, the old leader, has passed away and Joshua is now given the torch of his forefathers to carry, if you will. Notice, in the text above, that the Lord gives Joshua very direct, yet perhaps, curiously simple instruction: "Only be strong and very courageous." When I read this text, I recognize two possible responses that a person could have to these Words.

The first response is perhaps the easiest of the two. Imagine you have been given responsibility and people are relying on you to perform a task, and things have become more stressful and more tedious, and time and energy seems to be elusive, and you can't seem to catch a breathe let alone pray, and when you finally get a moment to crack open the Bible and read, the last thing you want to hear is "Only be strong and very courageous" for in your mind, you've done everything in your power to be just that, yet you still feel overwhelmed, so as a result you are perhaps jaded or even offended by the Word of God --my friend, you cannot do it on your own. Your priorities are out of order.

Now imagine yourself confronted with the same set of problems. However, this time you've diligently sought to keep Jesus as the number one priority in your life. As a result, you can now receive the Word of God in its simplicity-- only be strong and very courageous" has become somewhat of a theme in your walk with Christ because you have spent time with Jesus and your trust in His Word has increased-- my friend you are walking in Faith. Which are you? Stay tuned for Part 3